Staff Rating

User Rating

Antique Scream - Two Bad Dudes

Antique Scream is a two-piece band whose sound can be described as fuzzy, psychedelic blues with a metal tinge at points. Although the band has a very minimalist sound (one members plays drums, the other guitar and vocals), they manage to create a wall of sound sometimes not even achieved by bands twice their size on "Two Bad Dudes."

The album is supposed to be a 5-part concept album-honestly, I would've had no idea if I didn't do some research on this band. The vocals have an effect on them throughout most of the record that muddies them up a bit, so I couldn't make out some of the lyrics in the first place, let alone try to follow a story. That was the first red flag for me-I enjoy following stories when bands tell them, but I'm not sure what story Antique Scream is trying to tell. That said, there is some really good songwriting on here and it's impressive that a two-piece band can sound this big. A good song to get a feel for this band's brand of fuzzed-out blues is "Black Magic II." This song sounds like it came straight out of the 60s in the best way. "No Control" is also a pretty straight-forward bluesy song that reminded me of Elvis at points, especially in the vocalists' delivery.

I could tell that the second side of the album started with "Black Magic," as everything is stripped down and an impressive drum solo begins-and pretty much takes over the 4 and a half minute song. The last song "The Chronicles of Dirty Dick" had some of my favorite riffing in it, reminiscent of Black Sabbath.

Overall, if you're into bluesy stuff and 60s-sounding psychedelic rock, you'll probably find something to like here. I was hoping for some more variation in the band's sound, but their approach definitely says "if it ain't broke don't fix it" to me.